Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to improving communication among people from remote locations, at low cost, by improved communication schemes, including portal structures configured to be mobile and easily deployed to remote locations for quick assembly and use, creating an audio-visual communication unit or facility that provides its users with an immersive, face-to-face, real-time, audio-video communication experience with eye contact, while speaking to others in remote locations anywhere in the world. The portal network architecture includes a plurality of portals located in different locations, the portals configured to define identical physical spaces, each configured with favorable lighting and camera configurations, for audio-video, immersive communication experiences among users of the portal structures. The portal structures may also incorporate other communication implementations, such as “channels” to facilitate bi-directional interaction with a distant landscape and “phonos” to provide an unmediated aural link between different locations, enabling both real-time conversation and the transmission of ambient sounds. “Channels” and “phonos” communication implementations may either be used with the portal structures or on their own for specific applications, as desired.
Background of the Invention
Conversing with new people online, especially across vast geographic or ideological divides, although desirable, is currently difficult for five primary reasons: (i) limited technological access available to many people in remote locations across the globe, (ii) mediocre recording, transmission, and presentation quality and capabilities through standard laptop or computer screens, (iii) language barriers, (iv) safety concerns and (v) expense concerns.
First, many communities in the world simply do not have easy access to the computing power, audio-video tools, electricity sources, and communication (e.g., Internet) connectivity available to industrialized countries, for example, the United States, to facilitate real-time audio-video connections. Second, even those who do have access to such connections generally operate at home or in offices, sitting down, and through relatively small display screens, for example, on desktops, laptops or their telephones or other mobile devices. For many, these communications are unsatisfactory, because of viewing distant and small images, resulting in a far less immersive or real experience than a face-to-face conversation. Third, language barriers for people in different regions of the world make conversations or communications across certain divisions exceedingly difficult or impossible. And, fourth, new connections made online with distant communities are often fraught with safety problems or obstacles, such as scams, viruses, lewd encounters, and surreptitious recordings.
Several types of “telepresence” videoconference systems have been proposed for implementing a virtual conference environment. The virtual conference environment, often implemented on desktops, aims to enhance personalization factors relating to the attendees. Virtual conferencing communications simulate the real experience of the attendees as much as possible, to improve the experience for the end users, and improve the equipment use ratio, return on investment, and general user satisfaction. While these “telepresence” systems, compared to traditional videoconference system, may offer a better experience, they come at an extremely high cost.
Other types of traditional videoconference systems and existing “telepresence” systems cannot facilitate eye contact between users due to visual disparity. By instinct, it is natural for a user to look at the opposite party on the screen rather than the camera, but the camera is usually not located at eye-level at the center of the screen, but is located off to the side of the screen or above it. Consequently, disparity exists between the picture photographed by the camera and the picture faced by the user, making direct eye contact impossible. In yet other types of “telepresence” systems, multiple cameras are used to collect images of multiple persons in a single location and to display them. These images are often spliced by use of expensive software and result in disparities that are noticeable.
For a number of reasons, only some of which are identified above, there is a continuing need for better, more immersive and direct solutions to connect the world. The network of portal structures or implementation of various types of individual portal structures addresses the difficulties identified above, and more, by using identical structures to improve the feeling of spatial and aural continuity in a manner that is relatively cheap, easily deployable, and broadly accessible.